Secret hide-out for Arvizo family

The family who accused Michael Jackson are now living in fear they could face reprisals from the star's fans.

Gavin Arvizo, his parents and siblings were branded charlatans and liars.

Jackson's defence said they had tried to pull off "the biggest con of their careers".

The Arvizos are now living in a secret location in a suburb in southern California.

Their home has been fitted with a police panic button so that a team of officers can be on hand quickly in case of revenge attacks.

Gavin, now 15, claimed he had been abused by Jackson after the singer first met him in 2000 when he had cancer.

He was invited to the Neverland ranch, with his brother Star and sister Davellin, along with his parents, Janet and David.

Gavin said it was there that Jackson molested him on various occasions while sharing a bed with him.

His family were called "trailer trash" and "con artists, actors and liars" by the defence, while being condemned by the jury in a post-verdict news conference.

Mrs Arvizo said in the trial she had seen Jackson licking her son's head, but it later emerged that she was a welfare cheat who had exploited her son's illness to attach herself to stars.

She also claimed Jackson had threatened her, saying "killers" were after her family, and added she and her family were forced to praise the singer publicly in Martin Bashir's TV documentary.

The defence said Mrs Arvizo had seen how she could make money out of Jackson and programmed her children to lie.

The defence team poured scorn on her claim that she and her family were held against their will, showing she had kept an appointment for a body wax during that time.

Thomas Mesereau, Jackson's lead lawyer, had said that if Jackson were convicted, the family could file a civil suit against him seeking millions of dollars in damages.

When Star testified, he said he had seen Jackson cuddling his brother and molesting him while he slept, and that Jackson had walked into a room naked and aroused where the boys were watching a film. He also said that he personally surfed porn websites with Jackson, but that the singer had told him: "Don't ever tell anyone anything about what happened here, even if they hold a gun to your head."

His evidence was dismissed by the jury, as was that of 18-year-old Davellin.

Gavin himself was described by US comedian Chris Tucker - the defence's final witness - as unusually sophisticated and cunning for a boy.

Mr Tucker, who met the family at Neverland, said he once gave them ?820 after a fund-raiser for Gavin at a Hollywood comedy club.

Gavin then went to Mr Tucker's house, saying no donation had been made.